Daniel grew up in communist Eastern Europe where 99% of people were lower middle class. He knew that counting on government will lead you to be somewhere between poor and lower middle class. He saw that if you wanted anything over and above the basics, be it, experiences, things or even money for the sake of money, you had to work and hustle for it.

This complexity of entrepreneurship has taken up the majority of Rohan’s brain space and time. It has prevented him from pushing forward on some personal financial pieces. In particular, Rohan was recently dealing with the high costs of credit card debt. As self-employed and with no assets, he has had difficulty getting reasonably priced loans from traditional banks.

As the saying goes, when life serves you lemons, you make lemonade. Despite the challenges, that is what Avani a single mother or two managed to do. Avani immigrated to Canada almost 15 years ago; she was driven by the the opportunity to live in a country that offered economic growth, high standards of living, best in class education and peace of mind.

Diyon is a practical focused student working towards his goal of having a good quality life. He defines a good quality of life as one where he is engaged in work he likes, has time to spend with family and to give back to his community.

Kristina is a hardworking designer who is a jack-of-all-trades. She has been an independent freelancer for 7 years. She decided to try and work for herself after years of working for a breadth of different employers and never having a boss she respected.

After 15 years of struggling in the system, Aimee began to believe there had to be a better way. Knowing that patients wanted better care, that the industry is growing with people wanting to stay home longer, and understanding the funding system Aimee decided she could be better off by working independently.

With no education, limited English and no Canadian experience, Sam got a full time job working at the Grand & Toy warehouse and a part time job working as an usher. Sam knew the drill and that he was not going to be able to live better at these wages so he was continuously looking for ways to get ahead. He always dreamed of working for himself.

The World Economic Forum predicts that it will take 170 years for economic parity to be achieved[2]. What are our plans to close the gender wage gap in under 170 years?? In the spirit of meaningful progress, I have highlighted three meaningful actions most individuals within an organization we can take to advance the issue.

In all my interviews previous to Grace, individuals had expressed feelings of anxiety, frustration, ambivalence and avoidance towards money matters. Not Grace – she expressed joy. I kid you not, she said “Finances are Fun” and she meant it. I was curious about what made her enjoy money matters and most importantly what made her successful.